Nehemia 2:3

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ¹  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ²  by fire?”

Daniel 5:10

5:10 Due to the noise ³  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ⁴  then entered the banquet room. She ⁵  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[5:10]  ³ tn Aram “words of the king.”

[5:10]  ⁴ tn Aram “the queen” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). In the following discourse this woman is able to recall things about Daniel that go back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, things that Belshazzar does not seem to recollect. It is likely that she was the wife not of Belshazzar but of Nabonidus or perhaps even Nebuchadnezzar. In that case, “queen” here means “queen mother” (cf. NCV “the king’s mother”).

[5:10]  ⁵ tn Aram “The queen.” The translation has used the pronoun “she” instead because repetition of the noun here would be redundant in terms of English style.